The present invention relates to an information read/write apparatus, an information read/write method, and a program storage medium storing a read and write procedure program, which allow for reading information stored on a first information storage medium and writing the information on a second information storage medium. In particular, the present invention relates to such an information read/write apparatus, an information read/write method, and a program storage medium for storing a read and write procedure program which automatically perform appropriate read and write operations upon occurrence of an interruption in the course of a read or write operation.
For example, conventionally known is an information read/write apparatus, such as an audio device, which is adapted to read program information, such as audio data, stored on a CD (Compact Disc) or the like and write the information on an MD (Mini Disc) or the like.
However, suppose that read or write operation is interrupted due to power failure in the course of reading or writing program information. In this case, the conventional information read/write apparatus requires cumbersome manual operations in order to continuously restart a read or write operation with high accuracy after the recovery from the interruption.
For example, in case where the conventional information read/write apparatus is a car audio device which is mounted on a car, when a user (such as the driver) turns off the accessory switch (ACC switch) upon stopping the engine, the read or write operation of the information read/write apparatus is to be interrupted. Then, when the accessory switch (ACC switch) is turned on to start the engine after the interruption, the read operation is restarted from the program information at the time of the interruption. However, since the write operation has to be reset, the program information which is to be read after the interruption fails to be written any longer.
To restart reading and writing program information after such an interruption has occurred, the user may specify a write mode or the like. However, at the time of recovery from the interruption, the read operation continues to read the program information. Consequently, the restarted write operation only writes the program information intermittently, thereby making it impossible to write the program information with accuracy. This is why cumbersome manual operations were required for writing program information with accuracy.
First, a user or the like performs an operation for reading the program information which has been already stored in order to know the range of the program information which has been stored.
Then, when it is found that the most recently written program information at the time of the interruption has been read and written down to its end, the user performs an operation for specifying the track number of the program information which is to be read and written after the most recently written program information. The user also performs an operation for specifying the recording mode or the like in order to restart to read and write the program information from the specified track number.
When it is found that the most recently written program information at the time of the interruption has been written incompletely (not written down to its end), the user performs an operation for erasing the incompletely written program information. Then, the user performs an operation for specifying the track number of the incompletely written program information. Subsequently, the user performs an operation for specifying a recording mode or the like in order to restart reading and writing the program information from the program information of the specified track number.
As described above, it was necessary to perform the aforementioned cumbersome manual operations in order to continue accurate read and write operations of the program information subsequent to the most recently written program information at and after the time of an interruption caused such as by a power failure.